Pivoted type head for toy typewriter



June 12, 1962 E. l. BERGER 3,038,579

PIVOTED TYPE HEAD FOR TOY TYPEWRITER Filed Dec. 28, 1960 United tatespatent @ihre 3,338,579 Patented Jurre 12, 1962 3,ss,s79 PIVOTED TYPEHEAD FOR TOY TYPEWRHER Edwin l. Berger, 460 Redmond Road, South Grange,NJ. Filed Dec. 28, 1960, Ser. No. 79,002 Claims. (Cl. 197-47) It isamong the objects of the invention to provide a pivoted type head for atoy typewriter that is simple in construction, using substantiallysolely sheet metal stock and is not likely to become deranged, that mayreadily be operated and permits ready shifting of the type head fortyping of upper and lower case letters with relatively simplifiedmechanism.

According to the invention these objects are accomplished by thearrangement and combination of elements hereinafter described andparticularly recited in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of various possibleembodiments of the several features of the invention,

FIG. 1 is a transverse sectional View showing the type Wheel in positionto imprint lower case letter,

FIG. 2 is a View similar to FIG. 1 showing the type wheel in position toimprint upper case letters,

FIG. 3 is a perspective View of the mechanism to effect shifting of thetype head from lower case to upper case position,

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 3, and

FIG. 5 is a detailed sectional View taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 3.

Referring now to the drawings, the pivoted type head is incorporated ina toy typewriter which may be of the general type shown in Patent No.2,905,300 and co-pending application Serial No. 812,686, filed May l2,1959, now Patent No. 2,964,156.

The toy typewriter has an inclined platform or base 11 to the rear ofwhich a platen structure 12 is slidably mounted. As such platenstructure may be of the type shown in said co-pending application andper se forms no part of the present invention, it will not be describedin detail.

Mounted on the platform 11 centrally aligned with the carriage base 13of the platen 12 is a support 15, preferably comprising a substantiallyrectangular base 16 having a pair of upstanding transversely alignedarms 17, 18 at opposite ends on each side thereof and a pair oftransversely aligned upstanding arms 19 on each side respectivelyadjacent the arms 18.

Pivotally mounted on the aligned pair of arms 19 is a U-shaped key lever21, depression of which effects the typing operation by the meanshereinafter described. The arms 22 of the key lever 21 are pivotedbetween their ends on upstanding arms 19 as by rivets 23. Pivoted at oneend to the free end of each of the arms 212 is a link 2.4, the other endof which is pivoted as at 25 to the obliquely extending arms 26 of asubstantially U-shaped sheet metal carriage 2.7, s-aid pivotalconnection 25 being between the ends of such obliquely extending arms26. The free ends of the obliquely extending arms 26 are pivotallyconnected to the upstanding arms 17 as by rivets 28, said rivetsextending through oblique slots 29 in the upstanding arms 17 to providea piv-otal and slidable mount for the ends of such arms.

Also pivotally mounted by -said rivets 28 lare the ends of the arms 31of a U-shaped locking member 32, said arms straddling the upstandingarms 19. The locking member 32 has a cross piece 33 extendingtransversely across the base 16 and adapted to abut against a shoulder34 formed on the sides of each of the arms 19 adjacent the arms 18.

The length of Ithe a-rms 31 land the distance between the shoulders 34and the lower end of slot 29 is such that when the cross piece 33 abutsagainst lthe shoulders 34, the arms 31 will retain the pivots or rivets28 .at the lower end of s-lots 29.

Rotatably mounted on an -axle 41 extending at right angles to the crosspiece 42 of carriage 27 is a type wheel 43 having at its periphery tworows of type heads, the upper row comprising lower case letters andnumbers and the lower row comprising upper case letters and numbers. Asis clearly shown in FIGS. l and 2, the periphery of the type wheel 43extends beyond Ithe cross piece 42 of carriage 27 so that when suchcarriage is rotated in the manner hereinafter described, one of theletters or numerals on either the upper or lower row will strike againstthe ribbon 44 aligned with the platen 12 to cause a correspondingimpression to be made on the sheet of paper 45.

The key lever 21 is connected through a suitable linkage with anescapement mechanism 46 of suitable type, such as that shown in theabove-identified patent application, which will advance the platen 12one space with each depression of lthe key lever 21. The linkagedesirably comprises a rod 47 extending transversely across the base androtatably mounted in arms 18, one end of said rod being bent a-tsubstantially right angles to carry a spacer key 48.

Secured to said rod 47 is a curved lever 49, the free end of whichcoacts with 4the cross piece 51 of the key lever 21. The lever 49 has alinger 52 which is connected by link 53 to actuator arm 54 of theescapement mechanism 46. As such escapement mechanism and the actuatorarm 54 are under spring tension, the lever 49 will normally be urged ina counterclockwise direction, referring to FIG. 4.

The U-shaped locking member 32 is freely mounted on pivots 28. Hence thecross piece 33 thereof will normally drop by gravity to its downwardrest position as shown in FIGS. l and 4. Normally, when the key lever 21is not pressed, the cross piece 33 will be positioned to the rear of theshoulder 34 so that the pivotal axis 28 of the canriage 27 will be atthe lower end of inclined slot 29.

Means are provided to move the cross piece 33 of locking member 32 clearof shoulder 34. To this end, a lever 56 is provided pivotally mountedadjacent one end on the end of rod 47. The lever 56 extends parallel tothe arms 31 of locking member 32 and has a hook conformation 57 at itsfree end which engages the undersurface of arm 31 between its ends. Theother end of lever S6 has a finger S8 rising therefrom which mounts .ashift key 59 at its upper end.

The lever is so mounted on rod 47 that when the key 59 is pressed topivot the lever 56 in a clockwise direction from the position shown inFIG. 1 to the position shown in FIG. 2, the arm 31 will be pivotedsufliciently so that the cross piece 33 is clear of shoulder 34.

The operation of the typewriter may be briefly summarized. With a sheetof paper 45 inserted between the platen 12 and the elongated ribbon 44,the type wheel 43 is rotated so that the desired character or numeral isaligned with the ribbon. Assuming that a lower case character on theupper row is to be typed, it is merely necessary to then press on thecross piece 51 of the U- shaped key lever 21 to pivot the arms 22thereof about their pivots 23. As a result, the free ends of `arms 22will move upwardly causing links '24 to be raised to react against theobliquely extending arms 26 of the carriage 27 to pivot the latter in acounterclockwise direction about its pivots 28.

Referring to FIGS. l 'and 3, when the cross piece 33 of locking memberis in its lowermost position it will be 3 in alignment with shoulders34. Hence the pivots 28 will be retained at the lower end of slots 29 sothat the selected character on the upper row of the type wheel willstrike the ribbon to cause a corresponding impression to be made on thepaper 45.

In the event it is desired to type an upper case character or numeral,it is merely necessary for the shift key 59 to be pressed to pivot thelever 56 in a clockwise direction from the position shown in FIG. 1 tothe position shown in FIG. 2. As a result, the hook end of lever 56 willpivot the arms 31 in a counterclockwise direction about the pivots 28 tomove the cross piece 33 clear of shoulders 24. Thereupon, with the shiftkey still pressed, the key lever 21 is pressed which will both move thepivot 2S to the upper end of the inclined slot 29 and rotate thecarriage 27.

Since such movement of the pivotal axis of the carriage 27 will causethe arcuate path of movement of the type wheel to change, i.e., to beshifted forwardly, it will cause the selected character on the lower rowof the type wheel to strike the ribbon as shown in broken lines in FIG.2 to make the desired impression. To restore the carriage 27 to normalposition, it is merely necessary to release the shift key 59 and thetype key 21.

With the relatively simple mechanism above described, a versatile toytypewriter is provided that will afford irnprinting of both upper andlower case letters, similar to those on a standard portable typewriter.By reason of the simplicity of the construction above described, the toytypewriter is relatively inexpensive in cost and is capable of long use,without likelihood of derangement.

As many changes could be made in the above construction, and manyapparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be madeWithout departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that allmatter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanyingdrawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingsense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a typewriter mechanism, the combination of a base, a platenstructure at the rear thereof, a carriage pivoted on said base on anaxis extending parallel to the platen, said carriage having a leg, thepivotal axis for said carriage extending through the end of said leg, amember rising from the base of said typewriter having a downwardlyinclined slot through which said pivotal axis extends, yan arm pivotedat one end to said pivotal axis 'and having an abutment at its otherend, a stop normally engaged by said abutment to restrain movement ofsaid arm, thereby retaining the pivotal axis at the lower end of saidslot, a type wheel rotatably mounted on said carriage on an axisextending at right angles to the pivotal axis of said carriage, saidtype Wheel having at least two rows of characters thereon positioned oneabove the other on the periphery of said wheel, means to rotate saidcarriage about its pivotal axis for movement of the type wheel towardand away from the platen to cause a character on one of the rows tostrike the platen, and to urge the pivotal axis of said carriage towardthe upper end of said inclined slot, engagement of said stop by saidabutment restraining such movement of the pivotal axis, and means tomove said abutment away from said stop, whereby when said carriage isrotated about its axis, the arcuate path of movement of the type wheelwill be changed and a character on the other of the rows of said typewheel will strike said platen.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said pivoted arm isurged by gravity to position the abutment in engagement with the stop.

3. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which the distance from thelower end of said slot to said stop is substantially equal to thedistance between the pivotal axis of said arm and said abutment.

4. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which the means to move theabutment away from said stop cornprises a lever pivotally mountedbetween its ends and having one end engaging said arm between its ends,and means to rotate said lever to raise the end thereof engaging saidarm to pivot the latter about its pivotal mount lthereby to move theabutment clear of said stop.

5. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which the means to rotatesaid carriage comprises an actuating arm pivoted between its ends to thebase of said typewriter, and `a link pivotally connected at its ends toone end of said actuating arm and to the leg of said carriage above itspivotally mounted end, whereby when the other end of the actuating armis pressed, the end to which the link is connected will move upwardlycausing the link to move in corresponding direction to react against thecarriage leg, thereby pivoting the carriage against the platen.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

